Sisson, executive director of the Mobile Airport Authority, said people questioned the wisdom of the $790,000 project, suggesting instead that the money could somehow be used to drive down ticket costs at Mobile Regional, where average fares are among the highest in the country. (Not possible, by the way. The flooring project is paid from a pool of money restricted to airport terminal improvements.)

Sisson said the authority did extensive surveys soon after he took the job as executive director in 2008, trying to gauge public impressions of Mobile Regional, whose M.C. Farmer Terminal was built in 1984.

When something along the lines of "sorta shabby" was the public reply, Sisson said he had one of the goals that continues to guide the authority's work -- developing "clean, efficient, modern facilities" to improve the airport's standing with travelers.

Business Editor K.A. Turner writes a weekly column. Contact her at 251-219-5644 or e-mail kturner@press-register.com. Follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/prturner.

Mobile Regional Airport will top 600,000 passengers this year, Sisson said. Those folks will come and go on an average 50 daily flights through four airlines -- the merging Continental/United, Delta Air Lines, U.S. Airways and American Airlines.

About 60 percent of those travelers will be on business trips, which is a factor in Mobile's average fare. Business travelers typically pay more because they book closer to departure dates. And because they've got to make a trip to make money, they're more price-tolerant than leisure travelers.

Boyd Group International, a Colorado aviation consulting firm, told the Press-Register last week that the average one-way ticket from Mobile, including taxes and fees, was $269.60 in the last three months of 2010, seventh-highest among the country's 175 largest airports. The firm also measures cost per mile, where Mobile was sixth-highest at 21.88 cents per mile, which was nearly 50 percent higher than the national average.

The airport also likes to track its average lowest domestic fares. It takes the lowest cost paid on any given day by a passenger in or out of Mobile, then averages those numbers. According to the airport, the lowest average fare at Mobile Regional in both May and June was within $10 or less of the same average at either Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport or Gulfport-Biloxi Regional Airport.

While Sisson said there's no way to know how many of those low-cost seats were actually available on any given day, he does contend that the statistic is one effective way to compare costs at Mobile Regional to that of its neighbor airports. Airport officials also like to point out that in the past two months, about 20 percent of its passengers came from outside Alabama, so there must be at least a few decent fares drawing them.

Boyd Group co-founder Mike Boyd told the Press-Register last week that, at the end of the day, airlines, not airports, set fares. Sisson said that the Airport Authority has about as much control over fare prices as a mall manager might have over the price of a shirt in one of the mall's department stores.

During the period when AirTran Airways served Mobile Regional, annual passenger counts climbed almost to 900,000, Sisson said. "A low-cost carrier can stimulate a market," he explained. "People fly who would not normally fly, and they also will drive further to do it."

Increasing Mobile Regional's passenger count is about the only way to move the needle, those involved agree. But it's a chicken-and-egg proposition. Low fares would bring customers, but the airport needs more customers to attract a low-cost airline.

Which brings us back to the authority buying new floors. Perhaps it's at least a step in the right direction.